Marc Scott won Great Britain’s first medal of the World Indoor Championships, claiming bronze in the 3000m.
The 28-year-old ran seven minutes 42.02 seconds to finish behind Ethiopian duo Selemon Barega and Lamecha Girma on Sunday.
He said: “I had it in my head that I wanted a medal and it weighed pretty heavily at times.
“You never know what’s going to happen in these races. I knew if I could get around a lot of bodies going into the last lap it would be very hard for them to come back past me.
“The race was choppy and bruising but that’s the way it goes. I have blood on my shin but I can’t feel that now. I’m sure I will later when all this sinks in. It doesn’t dampen anything and the pain is worth it to come away with a medal.
“I’ve always believed this is my level but I always had minor set-backs going into the major championships. This year I knew I could compete. It gives me great confidence going forwards.”
Defending champion Andrew Pozzi reached the semi-final of the 60m hurdles in Belgrade.
He clocked 7.60 seconds behind the USA’s Grant Holloway – the world record holder – in the fifth heat.
Pozzi, who won the title in Birmingham in 2018, is joined in the semi-finals by British team-mate Dave King, who won the first heat in 7.65secs.
“I think my time was 7.60 so almost my season’s best. It felt very comfortable, I started quite steady and I worked my way through which is often the way in championships so I am feeling good,” said Pozzi.
“Obviously I raced here in 2017 winning the European indoor title so I had that in my mind but that’s what the first round is for, really just getting your timing back in because it is a different surface.
“You can hear when everyone is running, it’s on elevated boards which do flex a little bit so for me it was just about finding my rhythm, building in slowly and then hopefully in the next round I can take it up a little bit.”
Great Britain’s men’s 4x400m relay team of Alex Haydock-Wilson, Ben Higgins, Samuel Reardon and Guy Learmonth were the slowest qualifiers but reached Sunday night’s final.
The women’s squad of Hannah Williams, Ama Pipi, Yemi Mary John and Jessie Knight qualified fourth.
